After 2,000 Years, Scientists Learn How One Chinese Herbal Medicine Works

Scientists in the United States on Sunday offered a
molecular-level explanation for how a Chinese herbal medicine
used for more than 2,000 years tackles fever and eases malaria.

The herb is an extract of the root of a flowering plant called
blue evergreen hydrangea, known in Chinese as chang shan and in
Latin as Dichroa febrifuga Lour.

Chang shan's use dates back to the Han dynasty of 206 BC to 220
AD, according to ancient documents recording Chinese oral
traditions.

In 2009, researchers made insights into its active ingredient,
febrifuginone, which can be pharmaceutically made as a molecule
called halofuginone.

They found that halofuginone prevented production of rogue Th17
immune cells which attack healthy cells, causing inflammation
that leads to fever.

A study published in the journal Nature on Sunday found
halofuginone works by hampering production of proteins for making
"bad" Th17 cells, but not the "good" ones.

Specifically, it blocks molecules called transfer RNA (tRNA),
whose job is to assemble a protein bit by bit, in line with the
DNA code written in the gene.

As for malaria, halofuginone appears to interfere with the same
protein-assembly process that enables malaria parasites to live
in the blood, the study said.

"Our new results solved a mystery that has puzzled people about
the mechanism that has been used to treat fever from a malaria
infection going back probably 2,000 years or more," said Paul
Schimmel, who headed the team at the Scripps Research Institute
in California.

Halofuginone has been tested in small-scale human trials to treat
cancer and muscular dystrophy. Drug engineers also eye it as a
potential tool for combatting inflammatory bowel disease and
rheumatoid arthritis, which are also autoimmune diseases.